Tromsø December 2024 – Part 1 of 3

Polar night? Yikes!

Arriving in Tromsø feels like coming home. I don’t know why but it’s always felt that way. I fell in love with the place the first time I visited. There was some kind of immediate connection. When I booked the trip this time, I had a very strong sense that Tromsø was where I needed to be this December. It was between Norway and NYC. At the time I had no idea what a life-changing trip this would end up being. But let’s start at the beginning.

I was sitting on the “wrong” side of the plane to see the lovely twilight outside once we arrived at the Arctic Circle. It was the right side for me as I had chosen it specifically to see the coastline. Unfortunately, it wasn’t clear enough to make out any of it this time around, but that made the final approach all the more special. F

or a while everybody on my side of the plane felt incredibly jealous of everybody on the other side looking out at those amazing colors. It soon got pretty on our side as well. We turned around on our approach into Tromsø airport.

I’d been at that airport three times before (well six if you count the return flights separately) but it took me a minute to figure out where to go. Baggage claim was easy. Finding the bus to the city center was not as straight forward. There was a bus stop that everybody headed to. It said disembarking only in Norwegian. So, in the other direction we all went. The bus arrived quite quickly and took us through the tunnel under the hill that makes up the main island Tromsø is situated on. It’s a massive tunnel with two traffic circles inside. I find it fascinating.

The bus dropped me off just about 100 meters from my hotel. It was 12.40 and I was in (!) my hotel room at 12.50. I was surprised that I was able to check in right away. That wasn’t supposed to happen until 3 PM. So far so good.

I went straight to the Tourist Info to get my Tromsø Pass and some much-needed spikes. Since the closest museum was the Art Museum of Northern Norway, that’s where I went first. There was only one floor open but what a floor that was! It was works of art and sculptures by a local Sami woman called Ingunn Eldbjørg Utsi. She works a lot with driftwood and barbed wire. Her art really touched me.

I especially loved the caption on one piece of art. It was called “take detours” and I love that detours is “krokveier” in Norwegian. What a fun word.

There was a lot in her art about borders and being excluded or held back. There were other pieces that talked about dreams. I had a hard time taking it all in. It touched me so deeply. At one point I had to stop and focus on my breathing as I was getting a bit overwhelmed by how powerful her art was. I’m being transported back there as I’m typing this.

The seed of being true to myself and ignoring borders, restrictions, societal norms was firmly planted. As was the need to break out.

I just didn’t realize it yet.

After the museum I walked around for a bit. I passed the Troll Museum and walked down Main Street where the underfloor heating kept the pedestrian area completely ice free. I also went into a kiosk to grab a lime-flavored Pepsi. We don’t get those around here. Lemon yes – lime no. Later on, I also bought a Christmas drink. Somebody had tried a bunch of them on IG and the one I picked was just as disgusting as they said. Oh well, it was nice and colorful, so I had to give it a try.

It was around 2.05 PM when I started walking around. This is what 2.05 PM looks like during polar night in early December. I’m not complaining as this is exactly what I needed. If anybody had told me it was 9 PM, I’d have totally believed them - 100 per cent.

Time for cake and tea/coffee at my hotel. Also, time to check out the relax area. Sauna and such. There was a small sauna and bathing suits were mandatory. Unsurprising since most guests were from the UK or the US. There was a jacuzzi on a roof terrace too. That one you needed to book ahead. Could have been pretty if the weather was nicer and if I wasn’t traveling alone. I might have preferred just meeting random people there, but … I really didn’t feel like booking it for myself.

I had seen signs to the “Full Steam Museum” on my walk so I went to check that out next. It was not included in my Tromsø Pass. Now I know why. There’s supposed to be five floors. The building looks like it has five floors too. So far so good. You walk in, there are stairs to your right but straight ahead is a door where the prices for the museum are listed. So, you walk through that door. Nobody on the other side of it in an area that was clearly part of the museum knew where I could buy a ticket.

I was first sent to the front (reception and restaurant bar area), they sent me back to the museum shop, then the person there went to ask her manager who was the rudest person ever. I could hear what he said, and he was basically blaming his employee (on her second day) for not having made sure that she was trained properly. He also said that if people can’t find the museum entrance it’s their own fault. Nice guy, really.

Eventually I was told that there was a ticket machine upstairs. So, upstairs I went. Turns out I could have just walked up the stairs inside the museum shop. Anyway, there was not much to see at all, and I would in no way call what was there a “museum”. I saw two floors and then tried to go up to the other levels. There was a big sign saying you were not allowed to access the upper floors.

At that point I just gave up. What a waste of time.

I went back to my hotel for what they call a “light evening meal”. It was a full buffet of delicious food. Perfect for a solo traveler as sitting alone at a restaurant is not always that enjoyable.

Looking at my pictures now, I think I went back outside twice when I got an aurora alert. If I was going to see the Northern Lights it was going to have to happen tonight or tomorrow, because after that it was 100% rain; and more rain and then a third day of rain.

Anyway, no luck so I went off to bed.